Devon, I am in southern illinois, 50 miles east of St Louis… Have a 3 car garage, so painting was done in the 3rd stall… Garage is insulated and during the winter, when we park the vehicles inside, the heat from the engines cooling down heats up the garage a tad… 
I did more research:
In an AC induction motor we only need to supply the power to the stator and power is induced in the rotor and hence no sparking occurs.
Granted a bad connection could cause a spark…
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The information I provided, as I said, is only a thumb nail of the total to construct a ‘proper’ paint booth/hood. This is from memory, been out of the air handling industry for 15 years. One of the other fora had a good thread on paint booths, but the one I think it is, I am currently locked out of, like BD they just changed software and I haven’t gotten to update my membership.
One of the BIGGEST bug-a boos in low cost paint booths is the fan motor. Most inexpensive fan motors will put the motor in the air stream, and if the user is painting with VOC paints, that can be a dangerous situation. A proper system will either have a belt driven fan keeping the motor out of the air stream, or an explosion proof motor (high dollar).
I realize this is a hobby, but no sense in promoting dangerous processes for the sake of cost. I will get logged back into the other forum and see if I can locate the thread.
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Bob,
I for one appreciate the knowledge and is the reason I made the post. I know less than nothing about air handling. I say less than nothing because what I think I might know could be wrong and in this case outright dangerous. I was spit balling ideas. Clearly not having any clue about unforseen dangers.
The info you included here is gigantically important and has made me completely reconsider what I want to do. While I like to do DIY projects, and many steer away from them for fear of doing something dangerous, I believe armed with good knowledge and proper planning one can do a DIY project safely.
You have not deterred me, you have educated and encouraged me. Armed with this knowledge I still think I can do a great job, but do it safely.
for spray painting i need the garden, a model, a spray can and a cigarette.
step one: light a cigarette, to establish the direction of wind.
step two: turn back to luv, and model to lee.
step three: put out cigarette.
step four: spray paint (preferably onto the model)
step five: search for a place, where to put model for drying.
step six: go and wash hand that held the model.
if its raining, any large cardboard box is good enough.
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Wow, if I took all these facts and had to have some type of paint booth just to get my models painted I would have not ever sprayed painted models, etc. in my life. Being a retired body shop mgr. for a large DFW GM dealer I’ve seen it all where it comes to spray painting and so far the world still go on. If you over think this topic you will probably never achieve your goals to to becoming a good model painter, you can over think to to death. Many of you have good and practical approach to model painting, the others are still trying to figure how to get the spray booth to paint the model for you.
trainman
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Us over think. . . The horror
I agree. Browse something like this:
hobby spray paint booth (in images)
and then go for it. Consider the safety issues we’ve discussed … but don’t get anal. On that point
I feel safe with my design as it uses an AC motor, and doesn’t compress the airflow into a contained
area (as some of the ducted designs do). I suppose a “flare off” could happen but there would be no explosion. I do keep an extinguisher handy…
Disclaimer: if you DO manage to blow yourself up, don’t blame me!
I’m just sharing info on how I did it, and NOT suggesting you do the same.
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One thing to consider, whether you’re buying or making is: have LOTS of light. I doubt you can have too much. You probably won’t consider it until you start painting. I like Steve’s light - looks nice and bright.
It could almost use two strings of LEDs, one to the rear and one to the front. With just the one you get shadows on one side or the other depending on where you hold it.